How the brain's memory area helps you understand speech in noisy or muffled situations
Role of connectivity between hippocampus and auditory cortex in adverse listening conditions
Researchers will use very high-resolution brain scans to see how the hippocampus (a memory area) and the hearing parts of the brain work together when people try to understand degraded or noisy speech.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Massachusetts General Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11308686 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would come to Mass General for sessions in a 7-tesla MRI where you'll listen to speech that is made harder to understand while researchers record brain activity at very fine detail. The team will look at activity in the hippocampus and the auditory cortex, including signals in different cortical layers, to see how feedback from memory regions helps with comprehension. They will compare conditions with more or less contextual information to see when the hippocampus steps in to help. The work uses human volunteers performing listening tasks while being scanned to build a detailed map of these communication-support processes.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Adults who can safely undergo 7T MRI—particularly older adults or people concerned about memory or Alzheimer's risk who can follow listening tasks—are ideal candidates.
Not a fit: People who cannot have a 7T MRI (for example, due to metal implants, severe claustrophobia), or those with severe cognitive impairment who cannot perform the listening tasks, are unlikely to benefit from participating.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the work could reveal brain pathways that help people understand speech in difficult settings and point to early markers or strategies to help communication problems linked to aging and Alzheimer's risk.
How similar studies have performed: Previous research has shown the hippocampus can aid comprehension of degraded speech and that 7T layer-specific fMRI can reveal feedforward and feedback patterns, but combining layer-specific connectivity between hippocampus and auditory cortex in humans is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Massachusetts General Hospital — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Lankinen, Kaisu Marja — Massachusetts General Hospital
- Study coordinator: Lankinen, Kaisu Marja
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.